Studying in a so-called "alternative school" in Bangalore, our child had blissfully spent the first few years of her school life playing in the sandpit, climbing monkey bars and asking endless questio...

Once a year, every year, there is at least one piece of news that questions the very existence of a viable education system in Bihar. Then, in the spirit of sensationalism, the media bypasses any debate on the education system and makes it a point to highlight everything regressive that can be attached to the state of Bihar. This year, it was the on-camera "examination" of two Bihar board toppers of the intermediate/Class 12th exams.

Along with 10,40,367 teenagers who appeared for the all-important CBSE 12th Standard Board Exams all across India, you wondered if you would get into the college and course of your dreams, or be forced to choose from the "next, less appealing options". You young ones have a lot more pressure today than we did growing up two decades ago. Listen. You are more than a set of double digits.

"In May 1948 Ben Gurion declared the independence of the new state of Israel. It was immediately attacked by Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon". But a good student of history would ask: Israel declared its independence from whom? From their British partners who, at least initially, trained them militarily and politically? From the Palestinians who did not have the military advantages and materiel that the European Jews had access to?